AGRICULTURE IN BRITAIN

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1664, 20 January 1904, Page 29

AGRICULTURE IN BRITAIN

The reduction in the area, of land under the plough in Great Britain, which, has now continued annually since 1875, with onf.y three slight creeks', in 1885, 1894, ami 1897, state's bins- introductory lneinorandium to the agricultural for 1903 still continues. In the present year a further withdrawal of 172.000 acres from arable cultivation is recorded,'thus bringing the total below 15,500,000 acre®, or 3,000,000 acres less than it was thirty years ago. The lass in 1893 occurred almost entirely in England and Wans, the position in Scotland 1 , in spite of some local changes in the different counties: being' practically maintained. The decrease by 145,000 acre®, or 8|- per cent., in thei acreage returned as l under- wheat in 1903 reduced the area under that crop in Great Britain to -1,582,000 acres a smaller surface than in any year except 1895. The chief cause of this somewhat marked decline appears to have been the unfavourable! sowing time, while thei fact that oats &re considered! to l be generally a more remunerative crop had some influence in the samel direction'. In no English, and! in only one Welsh county, was an increase recorded!, and although, in Scotland there was rather less- consistency, the exceptions to the general rule were insignificant. The acreage of barley fell in 1903, by tho decrease of 51.000 acres-—2.7 per cent. rtio. 1,850,000 acres, this area being the lowest on record. The dependence of tho barley crop on the! weather at harvest was no doubt emphasised by the experience

of 1902, and combined with other caused to indue© farmers to place less reliance) upon it. . Oats are reported! from many districts) to' have been substituted for wheat, and the increase by 83.000 acres, ot 2.7 per cent., iu the acreage under this crop places it at a higher -level than in affi? previous year) except 1893, 1894, and! 189ty Oats now cover rather mom than on&» fifth of the total arable area of Great Britain, and only 300,000 acres less thiaul the acreage under wheat and barley com* bineid. The increase in 1893 was fairly! consistent throughout the country, onty six counties in England, two in Wales*, and eight in Scotland exhibiting a decline^ The decrease by nearly 10,000 _ acres of tire acreage under potatoes is of greaiteir significance, reducing that crop, as it practically does, to the position which it occupied in 1900. In Scotland and) thJ® northern division of England there was an increase in the potato aereteJge, and in the important county of Lincoln, also, there was a slight gain. But over* the. rest of England the reduction was consider*" able. The area under turnips and swedea has* year by year declined! during the past decade, and the movement in the eams direction was continued in 1903, although only to the extent of 5000 acres, or 0.3, -per cent.